Rootstock Radio: Rural Renewal with Robert Wolf

Today on Rootstock Radio, host Theresa Marquez speaks with Robert Wolf. Formerly a Chicago Tribune columnist, Robert currently serves as the director of Free River Press. He has written several books and is the producer of American Mosaic, a weekly half-hour radio program featuring stories written and read by men and women from all walks of life and all regions of the country. Robert’s new book—fresh off the press this month!—is called Building the Agricultural City: A Handbook for Rural Renewal.

As a young man, Robert struck out across the country in search of the “American soul.” Today he admits with a laugh that this abstract target eluded him, and in the end his journey became the search for, as he puts it, “authentic voices, authentic people.” The realization that many former fixtures of American life are vanishing—family farms and cowboys to name just two—led Robert to think about the concept of rural renewal, an idea he explores in his latest book. Robert predicts that rural America will be forced to become increasingly self-reliant saying “we’ve [rural Americans] got to have common recognition that we’re in trouble. And that it’s only by putting our brains together that we’re going to really sustain a decent kind of life.”

From the overuse of pesticides in agriculture, to the huge and inhumane Confinement and Feedlot Operations (commonly referred to as CAFOs) Robert and Theresa discuss the challenges rural Americans face today—in agriculture and beyond. However, the concept of rural renewal is, by definition, a hopeful one. Robert identifies positive change already happening in rural America, as he gives a nod to “all the young people interested in organic farming and permaculture,” continuing, “there’s a desire, we just have to create the opportunity for them.”

Take a listen at the link above or enjoy Rootstock Radio on-the-go via iTunes or Stitcher!

Related

There is a dire need for honest—yet personable—education amidst the rampant apathy, ignorance and worse, denial about the true state of food and farming in our country today. As we face the plethora of rubber-stamped GMO releases, we need to amplify the hard truth with compassionate and honest voices, balancing the doom-and-gloom with solutions for contributing to a sustainable future.

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3 Responses to Rootstock Radio: Rural Renewal with Robert Wolf

calle

January 25, 2017

How many of you actually live in rural America?
Have built fence, gotten stuck where no cell service reaches?
How many have wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions as your neighbors?

How many drive 2.5 hours for shopping and never go through a town?

I am against pesticides, herbacides, Monsanto and water pollution!
Put high prices, blizzards during calving season, young men who don’t want to work hard, and go to the city to flip burgers, have a larger pool of young women to date, leave a huge void.
Just remember net time you have a holiday and can’t find one store shop or cafe open to buy!

And Big Ag and Big Food, Big Pharma and those who want $15 an hour for a high school grad that thinks everyone who graduates college must be making $50 an hour.
Wake up folks, go send 3 months in the country and find out just how hard it is.
Have a truck break down and no tow trucks for less than $1000.
Work on a ranch during calving time in the snow and the cold, a straight 24/7 for two months.
Go out and find that new born colt that was killed by a mountain lion, who the wildlife rangers say don’t live here.

I know what it is to live in the city. Do you know what true rural America is like?

Not putting anyone down, just life is not easy anywhere, but until you live it, can’t know what it is like.

We are farmer-owners and staff of CROPP Cooperative out to save family farming culture through organic farming. Along the way, we're sharing our unique cooperative culture and homegrown expertise—from farming and gardening to kids and cooking and more.